Category Archives: history

food+drink, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Here’s another edition of our monthly guide to items you may have missed the first time around.

Science, Technology, Natural World

We’ll start off with one of my favourite subjects: wasps. We need to take sting out of our fear and loathing of wasps and welcome their importance to ecosystems

One of these days scientists will make up their minds. Unlike a while back, they’re now saying dogs arose from two populations of wolves, study finds

In good news, three Sumatran tiger cubs have been born at London Zoo. And they’ve released the usual cute cat pictures.

Scientists at London’s Kew Gardens, with many others, have found that the world’s largest waterlily is in fact a new species, now named Victoria Boliviana. That means there are now three giant waterlily species.
One of the lead scientists, Lucy T Smith, has written a blog item about the discovery. [LONG READ]
And James Wong writes about how the giant waterlilies changed architecture.

While we’re on engineering and architecture, Transport for London engineers have designed and are testing a totally new idea for cooling the London Underground.

Sexuality

In an unsurprising discovery many specialists have pointed out that male sterilisation (aka. vasectomy) isn’t going to solve (America’s) problem with abortions. [LONG READ]

Environment

While on things sexual, researchers are suggesting that grey squirrel numbers could be reduced using oral contraceptives. However I see the law of unintended consequences coming into play if this is tried.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

A look at the way our brains cope with speaking more than one language.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Some scientists are now reckoning that early human ancestors are one million years older than previously thought. It’ll be interesting to see if this holds up.

The mysterious Mycenaean and Minoan civilisations were a bedrock for much of Ancient Greece. [LONG READ]

An important hoard of Roman gold coins has been found near Norwich.

Here’s a review of Janina Ramirez’s new book Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages Through the Women Written Out of It.

Dr Eleanor Janega at Going Medieval provides a reading list on medieval abortion.
Meanwhile Scientific American takes a look at abortion and contraception in the Middle Ages. [£££]

Cavers have found a mineshaft in Cheshire which has been completely undisturbed for 200 years and is a useful time capsule.

Clandon Park House was gutted by fire in 2015. The National Trust which owns it has decided it will be mainly conserved as a ruin rather than restored to its former Palladian glory.

If you were a Victorian or Edwardian peer, what would you put in your vampire hunting kit? Well there was one for sale recently at Hanson’s Auctions; it sold for £13,000 (plus fees) some some five times it’s estimate!

London

On the interestingly named Pickle Herring Stairs.

Did you know that London had a naked Routemaster bus?

Apparently there are plans to un-culvert a stretch of the Gores Brook in Dagenham. A move which should be applauded, and repeated elsewhere.

It’s not quite London, but in our fourth item from IanVisits, he goes to Saffron Walden in Essex – a delightful small market town.

Food, Drink

The French authorities, like WHO, have now concluded there’s a definite link between charcuterie and colon cancer, due to the high level of nitrates and nitrites contained therein.

In better news, French scientists think they’ve cracked the puzzle of cultivating prized white truffles.

How safe is it to eat mouldy cheese?

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

The Guardian goes to meet a handful of the country’s more unusual master craftsmen.

One of my favourite places is the Dungeness and the Romney Marsh. Caroline Reed in Kent Life looks at some of the best of the area.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally, here’s a list of the rarest boy’s and girl’s names in the UK – 50 of each.

environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

This month’s collection of links to items you maybe didn’t want to miss.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Let’s start with one of the hard questions … What is Life? [LONG READ]

New observations from the Gaia telescope have provided the most detailed picture of the Milky Way to date (above).

At the other end of things, there is much we don’t yet know about the ocean depths and what lives there. [LONG READ]

This is amply demonstrated in ever detailed mapping of the depths of the Southern Ocean …

… current investigations of, and hunts for, underwater volcanoes [LONG READ] …

… a flourishing hidden world of marine life discovered under the Antarctic ice …

… and the mysterious sea creatures which surface at night but spend the day in the depths. [LONG READ] [££££]

Back on dry land researchers have proposed a new story of the origin of the domestic chicken 3500 years ago in rice fields.

And now two items on one of my recurrent themes: wasps …
What would happen if all the wasps disappeared? [VIDEO]
And secondly how not to let wasps spoil your picinic.

On a totally different tack, apparently trees around art galleries provide the art works with significant protection from pollution.

It turns out dandelions are more interesting that most of us knew. As a kid I learnt that the petals could be used to make very agreeable wine, the leaves could be put in salad and are a diuretic, and the roots could be roasted and used as a coffee substitute. What I didn’t know is that dandelions can be used to make rubber.

Finally in this section, scientists have discovered the world’s largest bacterium – and it’s the size of an eyelash.

Health, Medicine

Here’s the inside story of RECOVERY, the largest Covid-19 clinical trial, which transformed treatment. [LONG READ]

It is estimated that at least 1 in 7 people worldwide have contracted Lyme disease. [££££]

More surprising news is that 1 in 500 men carry an extra sex chromosome, being either XXY or XYY rather than the normal XY – and most don’t know.

[TRIGGER WARNING] From the “I thought we already knew this” file, a large study has confirmed that most miscarriages are caused by genetic errors. [££££}

Monkeypox may not mutate very quickly, but it still does mutate and adapt.

After some scientists object, the WHO is proposing to rename Monkeypox, but the placeholder name “hMPXV” (human MonkeyPoX Virus) doesn’t seem to me to be so much better.

There are tiny mites living in our hair follicles, and they have sex on our faces at night. And you thought your cat was a furry pervert!

Which brings us nicely(!?) to …

Sexuality

Yet more thoughts on how us geriatrics can still have great sex.

An interview with Julia Shaw about Bi, her new book on bisexuality.

Environment

A pair of peregrines have hatched three chicks on the roof of (my local) Ealing Hospital, which is slightly bizarre as the hospital no longer has a birthing unit.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

I’m not quite sure where these next two items should really belong, so I decided they’re “business” …

Cargo vessels are getting ever larger, but how can you rescue one when it gets into trouble?.

What do you do with an unwanted supertanker?

Some thoughts on Artificial Intelligence and the patent system from our favourite drug research chemist.

Art, Literature, Language, Music

I’ve defined this as art, because, south of Brussels, Charleroi has a truly surreal metro system. [LONG READ]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

You’ll remember that 5300-year-old mummified corpse found in the Alps some years ago … well it seems that he’s told us a lot about ancestral diet, compared with modern diet. [LOND READ]

There’s an Iron Age site near Cambridge where archaeologists have found the burial of a huge number of frogs – and they don’t know the reason for the burial.

The remains of over 140 people have been found at an Anglo-Saxon burial site on the route of the HS2 rail line.

Another from the annals of the “thought already known” … researchers say that the Black Death almost certainly started in Central Asia.

Here’s Dr Eleanor Janega (our favourite medievalist) on drag, femininity and sexuality in the before times.

Queen Elizabeth I commissioned the pirate Sir Francis Drake to chart the west coast of the Americas, disrupt the Spanish colonisation, and naturally bring back booty. In the process Drake, in the Golden Hind, became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the world, taking 1017 days.

And from the same era, here’s a stunning piece of French interior: La grande cheminée du manoir de Coëtcandec, exposée au château des Rohan à Pontivy. [It’s in French, but the images are stunning.]
[LONG READ]

A century later HMS Gloucester was wrecked off the Norfolk coast. It was carrying the future James II at the time; and I seem to recall Samuel Pepys was involved somewhere. The wreck has been located and is being investigated.

London

Here we have three items from IanVisits …

There are 13 green huts dotted around London; they’re the remaining Cabman’s Shelters (originally there were at least 61). Now another two have been given listed status, making 12 of the remaining 13 protected.

In Pinner churchyard there’s a strange coffin floating in mid-air (well, sort of!).

And here’s Ian’s report of a recent tour of Harrow School.

Food, Drink

It seems that climate change is altering the chemistry of wine, and not always in a good way. [LONG READ]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Finally an number of items on one of my core beliefs: naturism and nudism …
12 reasons to be a nudist.
On the many benefits of naturism.
No, nudity is not sexual – unless you make it so.
Three reasons why nudity is not better accepted.

history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Our monthly collection of links to items you may have missed. It’s the usual miscellaneous collection.

Science, Technology, Natural World

That big explosive volcano in Tonga is still surprisngly intact although the caldera looks to be a huge hole.

On the curiosity of organ pipes apparently violating a rule of sound.

And now for something completely different, for which I see many new applications … Apparently female mice release banana-scented urine when pregnant to deter males. [£££]

You all know by now that wasps are one of my favourite subjects. Here are two articles from Seirian Sumner, who’s book on wasps Endless Forms is out this week. First a piece in the Observer Magazine, and then her take on five facts about the gruesomeness of solitary wasps. [Prof. Seirian Sumner is the academic who runs the Big Wasp Survey which I’ve contributed to over the last several years.]

Back to more mundane(?) animals, researchers have been looking at the domestication of the horse. [LONG READ]

Jackdaws are democratic and use noise to make decisions.

Health, Medicine

Medicine in particular, and all of us in general, need to reassess and update our knowledge and the history of the female body.

Having said which, here’s a piece on how sex affects our immune systems and our brains.

Sexuality

The UK’s Office for National Statistics has found that for the first time ever over 10% of young women identify as “lesbian, gay, bisexual or other”.

Social Sciences, Business, Law

On the issues around making conscious software, why we should an why we shouldn’t. [£££]

Art, Literature, Language, Music

Historian and mythographer Marina Warner visits the British Museum’s exhibition Feminine Power: The Divine to the Demonic, which explores the volcanic power of goddess cults.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

New research on human coprolites reveals parasite eggs which suggest the builders of Stonehenge ate undercooked offal.

Workers at Osuna in southern Spain have uncovered an important, and hitherto unknown, Phoenician necropolis.

The Romans used silphium for just about everything: perfume, medicine, aphrodisiac and condiment. But in trying to cultivate it and increase yields they killed it.

Researchers have managed to successfully sequence the genome of a Pompeii victim. Turns out he was “Italian”!

Melting ice on an alpine pass in Norway has revealed a 1500-year-old shoe amongst many other artefacts.

The Amazon appears to be full of lost pre-Columbian settlements and urban sprawl.

A short item on Ragged Schools, and especially the one for girls in Hastings.

Modern purple dyes were invented in London in the 1850s and initially manufactured close to where I now live.

Two short articles on the eccentricity that is Winchelsea Beach in Sussex.

IanVisits goes to look at the de Haviland Aircraft Museum on the edge of North London.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Now here’s a real first world problem if ever there was one … should we embrace a cashless society? But one thing the author overlooks is that in a cashless society everything becomes electronic – which is fine until there’s a computer or power outage (accidental or sabotage).

Our favourite zen master, Brad Warner, is another one with a new book coming out.

And finally … they’re generally hated, but we should really like them: stinging nettles. Eat them, make fabric from them, or just let them be to grow butterflies.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

So here’s this month’s selection of links to items you missed the first time and will wish you hadn’t. And of course it’s the usual mixed bag, starting with the hard stuff.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Researchers think they’ve worked out the origin date for the ancient Antikythera mechanism – although they don’t all agree. I find this whole artefact just mind-boggling.

Antikythera Mechanism

A different set of researchers think they’ve uncovered the fossil remains of a dinosaur and some other creatures killed and entombed on the actual day the Yacatan asteroid hit 66m years ago.

First humans and animals, then trees, and now it seems mushrooms talk to each other.

Health, Medicine

Derek Lowe, our favourite pharmaceutical chemist, looks at why phenylephrine is useless as a decongestant.

Vagina Obscura, a new book by Rachel Gross, reviews the biology of female organs, including the vagina, uterus and ovaries, and how scientists are filling in the gaps in knowledge.

Maybe sometime, maybe soon, medicine will be able to “fix” menstruation.

Here’s a young lady with a very rare and disturbing visual condition.

Sexuality

If you fancy a trip to Italy you have until 15 January next year to see the current exhibition of Pompeii’s sex scenes and erotica.

Environment

It seems that peregrine falcons have have made my local (Ealing) hospital their base – well the appalling building has to be good for something!

Giant Orchid (Himantoglossum robertianum)

Meanwhile in Oxfordshire, Giant Orchids (Himantoglossum robertianum) have been found growing wild for the first time in the UK.

It’s being reported that new government rules will provide extra protection for adders and slowworms; which will be good if it happens.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A farmer in Gaza has uncovered a 4,500-year-old statue of Canaanite goddess.

Archaeologists at Uruk in Iraq have unearthed, and are trying to recover, an ancient Sumerian riverboat.

Meanwhile in the Assam region of India archaeologists have found more than a few ancient and mysterious giant stone jars.

Still in the ancient world, the grave has been found of an ancient Peruvian who was buried with tools for cranial surgery.

Nearer to home, and to our time, Dr Eleanor Janega, of Going Medieval, looks at the old moneymaking trick of selling indulgences.

Eleanor Janega also writes about a favourite saint: St Sebastian.

In 1580 there was an earthquake, with an epicentre in the Dover Straits, which damaged London’s (Old) St Paul’s Cathedral; needless to say this spawned a flurry of pamphlets – the Facebook of their day.

And almost right up to date, IanVisits looks at a new exhibition about the history of the UK’s postcodes.

London

On another track, IanVisits takes a look behind the scenes at the huge upgrade project nearing completion at London’s Bank Underground station.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Dungeness (Image: IanVisits)

Oh no! Not again! Yet another item from IanVisits! This time he takes a day trip to Hythe and Dungeness – to explore both and also ride on the Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

And finally for this month Tom Lamont in the Guardian takes a look at a day in the life of (almost) every vending machine in the world. [LONG READ]


environment, history, links, medical, science

You May Have Missed …

Here’s this month’s selection of links to items you may have missed.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Would you like to fly round the moon? If so, then NASA are giving away free flights for your name on their upcoming Artemis I mission.

Image NASA. Click for larger view.

Cosmologist Katie Mack talks about spotting and combating physics falsehoods online.

Researchers have found the huge and mysterious Hiawatha crater in Greenland to be 58 million years old.

Zoologist Lucy Cooke is waging war on Darwin’s prevailing view of the dominance of males and their benefit from promiscuity. Two articles, the first from the Guardian, the second from New Scientist [£££].

Palaeontologists have described a ten-limbed ancestor of modern octopuses, and named it after Joe Biden.

The largest ever family tree of humanity reveals our species’ history, where we originated and how we spread across the world. [£££]

The Eden Project in Cornwall have succeeded in getting their nutmeg tree to fruit for the first time since planting in 2001.

Image Eden Project

There’s a new drive to produce the red dye cochineal industrially without having to squash thousands of insects.

Health, Medicine

Here’s an interesting article about the work to identify which flu strains to put in this year’s vaccine – and some of the people who spend their lives trying to spot the emerging strains. [LONG READ]

And now another pair of articles, this time looking at the long-term, but haphazard, effect of Epstein-Barr virus, which is responsible for glandular fever. Again the first is from the Guardian, and the second from The Atlantic. [LONG READS]

Environment

One American academic has demonstrated that by just redesigning both homes and industrial processes it is possible to use almost no external power – and overall it is the cheapest solution! And yes, he has actually done it, and lives in the house.

An iconoclastic letter in New Scientist suggesting that as we’ve paved over much of our world we would do well to rip it up and plant trees instead. [£££]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

1700 years ago a Roman boat sank in shallow waters just off Mallorca on the Spanish coast. Archaeologists are now retrieving the amazingly well preserved cargo.

In what shouldn’t be a surprise the teams restoring Notre Dame in Paris have found early tombs and a lead sarcophagus under the cathedral’s floor.

Medievalist Dr Eleanor Janega goes looking at non-written communication in Norwich.

And here’s Eleanor Janega again, this time looking at medieval attitudes to semen and female sexuality.

Despite our misogynistic view, there were female composers in the Renaissance. Now more of the ground-breaking work of Maddalena Casulana has been pieced together and performed.

Now not quite up to date … An expedition has found the surprisingly intact wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance off coast of Antarctica.

Image Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust/NatGeo

London

IanVisits takes an opportunity for a look inside London’s Ukrainian Cathedral.

IanVisits has also managed a sneak preview of London’s new Elizabeth line railway (aka. Crossrail).

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Comedian David Baddiel talks about his life-long love of cats. [LONG READ]

Meanwhile a forensic pathologist wishes that a legacy of Covid lockdown is that we change the way we talk about death.

Japan may also need a new narrative as their so-called “killing stone” has split in two, releasing superstition and allegedly a nine-tailed fox. In two stories there’s the usual media-hyped look in the Guardian; however the Japanese think the media have the story wrong as Hiroko Yoda writes on Twitter.

And finally one of the great British train journeys which is high on my bucket list … the longest journey on a single train from Aberdeen to Penzance. I actually want to do Thurso/Wick to Penzance, with Kyle of Lochalsh, Fort William and Mallaig thrown in. I’m not holding my breath in the hope of ever doing it.


environment, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Here are my monthly links to items you may have missed, but didn’t know you didn’t want to.

Science, Technology, Natural World

Despite extensive studies, scientists still can’t agree on Chernobyl’s impact on wildlife. [LONG READ]

Try putting your ear to the ground … scientists are discovering that life in the soil is unexpectedly noisy. [LONG READ]

So can melting permafrost release ancient pathogenic microbes? [£££££]

It seems that magpies care! They’ve outwitted scientists by helping each other remove tracking devices.

But an even bigger problem … Do birds have language, at least in a way we would recognise? [LONG READ]

Finally in this section … a very short piece on the curiosities that are Britain’s pipefish.

Health, Medicine

A very worrying look at how the GP’s job has changed in the last 30 years. [LONG READ]

Researchers are discovering that bones are a lot more than bits of scaffolding.

How does what you eat affect your sleep, and vice versa?

What happens when depression collides with the menopause and perimenopause? [LONG READ]

Oh dear! Apparently everything we thought we knew about posture is wrong. [LONG READ] [£££££]

At last some good news … Apparently dark chocolate (at least in moderation) is good for your health, and for the microbiome.

Sexuality

So here’s a relationship therapist on how to have better sex.

Environment

Cranes were reintroduced to Britain in the late 1970s, and now they’ve had their best year for 400 years.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

A fossil of a large pterosaur has been found on the Isle of Skye.

Recent research is suggesting that the meteor which killed off the dinosaurs fell to Earth in the Spring.

Palaeontologists are coming to the conclusion that the extinction of the Neanderthals was not caused by the brutal domination of Homo sapiens.

Remains of woolly mammoth, and some other Ice Age remains have been found in Devon.

Some important prehistoric chalk sculptures, thought to be childhood artefacts, have been uncovered in Yorkshire.

Trousers are one of those wonders of civilisation in that their construction is not overtly simple or logical. So it’s astonishing that the oldest known “pants” seem to have originated in Asia, and a pair is survived around 3000 years. And the weaving is absolutely amazing.

Back at home, Museum of London archaeologists have found an 8m Roman mosaic floor in Southwark, just south of the Thames.

Here’s our favourite Medieval Historian on the power and influence of women in medieval times. [LONG READ]

Still with the medieval, researchers have found what appears to be the earliest known account of ball lightning in England, dating from 1195.

London

Just one London item this month … the Museum of London will close this December for 4 years, while it moves to its new home in the old Smithfield Market.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

And finally in this issue … British Naturism has, again, pointed out that it is not illegal to go naked in your back garden, and that it is not a matter for the police.

history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

Here be my monthly collection of links you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

Herman Hollerith’s Tabulating Machine was built for the 1890 US census, and led to the first data processing company (which was to become IBM).

So just why did cat-like animals disappear from North America for 6 million years? [£££]

The curious ways of the fishing cats are being revealed by scientists.

Two stories on the discovery of new to science, or rare, species. First a variety of previously undescribed plants. And secondly the hunt for the saloa an almost never seen Asian antelope.

Health, Medicine

A review of the book Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis. It turns out that proper convalescence is a hugely key stage in getting better.

Worldwide there are a very small number of people who cannot forget anything. One young woman describes what it is like to be medical exception.

Sexuality

It turns out that female dolphins have a clitoris very much like humans, which suggests they too experience sexual pleasure.

Environment

Electric cars and the like may be the way forward, but there are huge problems with their lithium batteries, especially at the end of their lives. [LONG READ]

Art, Literature, Language

There is undoubtedly a joy in rediscovering and reclaiming long-lost words, as Susie Dent extols.

So why are ministers (and educationalists) so obsessed with teaching children to read using phonics?

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Archaeologists have suggested that some ancient metal tubes unearthed over 100 years ago might be the oldest surviving drinking straws.

The body of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I is so well preserved that after 3500 years it is still able to revel much about the man, thanks to modern scanning and that it has never been unwrapped.

The remains of a huge Roman fort, built on the orders of Emperor Caligula, has been discovered near Amsterdam.

A huge mosaic floor has been found in a Roman villa in Rutland, and was featured on the BBC’s Digging for Britain.

New research is suggesting that medieval warhorses no bigger than modern-day ponies, and not huge carthorses as we thought.

London

IanVisits discovers the unexpected history of the stone benches outside Kensington’s museums.

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Another of our favourite bloggers, Diamond Geezer, takes a look at the curiosities of sleep.

Meanwhile Caroline’s Miscellany discovers the old tradition of Molly dances.

Shock, Horror, Humour, Wow!

There’s sad news as the landmine-hunting hero rat Magawa has died at the age of 8 after a stellar career.

And finally something to bring joy … here’s a video of an amazing automated LEGO factory that builds miniature log cabins from cucumbers. Enjoy …

arts, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

So here for the last time in 2021 is my compilation of links you may have missed the first time.

Science, Technology, Natural World

The simplicity of Occam’s Razor was seen by a medieval monk. [£££]

Chemists are finally beginning to get to the bottom of marijuana’s skunky scent.

It has become recognised that plants are interconnected via a network of underground fungi, and now there’s a project trying to map that network.

Scientists investigating a restored coral reef in Indonesia have recorded many sounds (not yet tagged to specific species) to a backing of snapping shrimp.

Still with fish, the tiny Batman River Loach* (Paraschistura chrysicristinae, above), long thought extinct, has been rediscovered in SE Turkey. [* It’s named after the Batman River!]

Meanwhile back on dry land, scientists working on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have identified 14 previously unknown species of shrew.

Between 2014 and 2018 there were many cats found dead especially around south London, and the perpetrator was long thought to be some warp-headed human. However research by the Royal Veterinary College has shown the cats died due to a variety of causes and were subsequently scavenged by foxes. This had long been suspected by some of us, despite being vilified by vigilante groups.

Art, Literature, Language

Artists have long been doing battle with the censor (in many forms) over the depiction of pubic hair and nudity, and photography is no different. [LONG READ]

Those much-loved kids TV characters The Clangers were not a anodyne as we all thought.

Here’s a video about an incredibly fragile instrument: the Glass Armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin. [VIDEO]

Writer Alan Garner talks about books that have been important to him.

This lady makes a living folding paper: it is sculptural, absolutely incredible and way beyond origami. [VIDEO]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Palaeontologists have found some ancient footprints which suggest that there were at least two hominid species living alongside each other in East Africa around 3.6m years ago.

Really quite modern by comparison, a 5700-year-old tomb in the Cotswolds has revealed a surprising family history of the occupants.

Around 700 years later a start was made building Stonehenge, the subject of a 2022 exhibition at the British Museum.

There is now evidence that some while after the building of Stonehenge there was a mass migration into Britain which accounts for around half of British peoples’ genetic make-up.

Still in Britain, and gradually coming closer to our time, archaeologists believe they have now found physical evidence of Roman crucifixion in Cambridgeshire.

Lastly in this section, Historic England present highlights of captivating historic site listed in 2021. [LONG READ]

London

London blogger Diamond Geezer reminds us quite how big London actually is. Well it needs to be to accommodate almost 10m people!

Food, Drink

Clare Finney in the Guardian explodes some of the biggest myths about cheese.

And in a similar vein (ouch!) Alison George in New Scientist looks at how microbes create the flavours of cheese. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

It seems that in these plague-ridden times there’s a thriving cottage industry in dream analysis.

And finally, I leave you with the magical and restful miniature world of the terrarium.

history, personal

Eleanor Crosses

As regular readers will know I was brought up in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire – an area of huge historical interest some of which I’ve blogged about before (see, inter alia, here, here and here).

Waltham Cross – the first stop for stage coaches from London going north to Cambridge and beyond – got it’s name from the Eleanor Cross which still stands in the centre of the town. As a kid one often doesn’t think a great deal about such historic artefacts. However my father was interested in the Crosses and it has rubbed off on me (along with much else of the local history) despite not having lived there for 45+ years.

Waltham_Cross
Waltham Cross
from a watercolour by W Bailey, 14 November 1889

The Eleanor Crosses were built between 1291 and about 1295 at the behest of King Edward I as memorials to this wife Eleanor of Castile, who died at Harby, Nottinghamshire in late November 1290. Her body was brought south to be buried in Westminster Abbey on 17 December 1290; a journey which took two weeks.

Wherever the procession stopped for the night, usually at a monastery, Edward had a memorial cross erected. There were 12 crosses in all, of which only Geddington and Hardingstone (both in Northamptonshire) plus Waltham survive.

(No, not including Charing Cross. The cross which stands outside Charing Cross Station in London is a Victorian recreation and is a couple of hundred yards from the site of the original cross.)

I have a fragile typescript of a talk on the Eleanor Crosses which my father (Bob Marshall, 1920-2006) gave to the Cheshunt WEA in the mid-1950s. I never managed to convince him that (despite its age) the talk should be published – which is one reason it has not been fully referenced. Nevertheless I’ve bitten the bullet, had the text transcribed, and make it available here as a PDF file:

RE Marshall; “The Eleanor Crosses: their history and their meaning”

In reading the text do bear in mind its age and that historical research will have moved on, so current knowledge may differ from what my father presents. However I feel the talk is worth preserving as part of my father’s legacy and as an introduction to the Eleanor Crosses.

environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

OK, so here we go with this month’s link to items you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

I don’t understand why it is that many people are afraid of spiders, because they’re much smarter than we realise.

Do you know what a wasp smells like? No, nor me. But scientists are now beginning to work it out. Oh and Vespula germanica used in tis study is one of the two common wasp specie in the UK.

While on Hymenoptera, apparently the old undisturbed woodland at Blenheim in Oxfordshire has colonies of heirs of the long lost British Honeybee. At first I found this so unlikely I had to check it wasn’t 1 April.

Researchers are now beginning to eavesdrop on embryonic/foetal animals to understand how they respond to sound. We’d known for some time that there was communication between between adults and embryos, but mostly not what it meant.

Health, Medicine

Apparently the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has cut the rate of cervical cancer by around 87%.

In other research, medics are now trying to understand “immune amnesia”, where a disease (usually a virus) turns off or supresses the immune system even after recovery. Measles is especially good at this, and it could go some way to explaining why some recover especially slowly from some diseases (Covid and glandular fever come to mind). [LONG READ]

Sexuality

So here’s yet another look at ways to achieve great sex. Doesn’t it all come down to what works for you?

Environment

A new way of looking at climate change has been developed: a map showing where carbon needs to stay in nature.

As Jane Dunford in the Guardian finds out, beavers are having a significant impact on the environment where they’ve been reintroduced. Oh and just get their names!

Apparently Europe has lost almost 250 million House Sparrows in the last 40 years – that’s roughly the current UK population of sparrows every year for 40 years. Many other species are doing this badly as well, although some birds of prey are doing well.

Art, Literature, Language

The origins of “Transeurasian” languages appears to have been traced to traced to Neolithic millet farmers in NE China.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Glass is an everyday substance for us, but there’s still a puzzle over where it was first discovered.

As well as having high class glass, Ancient Egypt had sacred baboons although they are not indigenous to the area. Where and how were they acquired? [£££] [LONG READ]

There are a lot of large pits near Stonehenge, and it turns out they’re Neolithic and man-made, rather than natural.

Las Vegas is nothing new: the ancient Romans had a party town all their own but it is now submerged in the sea

Nearer at home Roman Britain is still producing a stream of archaeological discoveries.

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins to be found in England has been declared treasure at an inquest.

Meanwhile historians are revealing the secrets of the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral

When an antiques dealer bought a dirty wooden bird little did he realise to has and important artefact from the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Still with the Tudors, some unsuspected, and almost pristine wall paintings have been uncovered at Calverley Old Hall in Yorkshire.

So just why is it that the Gunpowder Plot has continued to be remembered and celebrated for over 400 years?

You think we (in the UK) have a corrupt government? It has nothing on the parliaments of the 18th century. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Why is body hair still a no-no, especially in the world of dance?

And now three items on modern witchcraft. First from a Scottish hedge-witch. Second on the myth of the Halloween Hag. Lastly on the witch as a modern feminist icon.

And stay right there as we’ll end on the esoteric … The sentimental celluloid fairy is essentially a product of Disney as fairies were originally rather malevolent.

Have a good Christmas everyone; the Fates permitting we’ll be back with the next edition to enliven those dreary days between Christmas and New Year.